Thursday, December 31, 2009

A Happy New Year from Kyoto, Japan!

GTS would like to say "A Happy New Year to ALL" from Heian Jingu Shrine in Kyoto, Japan!! I wish Year 2010 be another excellent year for everyone! I also hope all of you to my class soon! Japan 1102 in the morning is full, and there are some 10 seats left for the night class. 2202 and 2252 have plenty of seats! Summer study abroad program application deadline is approaching and I hope many of you could join the study trip as well! The spring trip seems difficult to be realized yet another field trip has been approved for December 2010 (12/17/10-12/27/10)!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Holiday in Japan today!

Today is a national holiday in Japan. GTS's daughter, EMA's birthday! (Oh, Emperor's birthday today). Japanese 1102 in the morning is full now. There are 10 seats left for the night class! It is exceptionally cold in Kyoto though a lot better than Chicago or Washington D.C. I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Greeting from Kyoto, JAPAN!

GTS has just arrived in Kyoto, Japan for running some errands caused by GTS father's passing last June. Final letter grades of classes should be posted soon! Out of 52 students in GTS 1101 classes, 44 students survived (17 A's, 2 B's, 14 C's, 9 D's, and 2 S's). For 2201, there were 10 survivers (1 A, 4 B's, 2 C's, and 3 S's). There are 35 students registered in 1102 in the Spring semester as of today! Study abroad applications are increasing as well! GTS gets some rest here in Japan and get back there to enjoy with students in classes!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

GTS/JCC 2009 Final Dinner with 30 comrades!

GTS/JCC 2009 final dinner was successfully finished with 30 participants! Many of past study abroad participants from DePaul Univ., Eastern Michigan Univ., Art Institute of Chicago, etc joined as well as a married couple those who met with each other in GTS' Japanese language class some years ago! Their twin boys were born on 12/23/2007 exactly two years after GTS' little Ema. Moreover two students who joined the dinner for the first time from DePaul are planning on participating in COD Summer Japan Study Abroad Program in 2010! Wow! 2010 summer program seems to have many energetic students! Honor Seminar has almost completed and it will come back next fall as a joint project of Japanese Culture Class (Japanese 1100) and Social Problems Class (Sociology 2220)!
JCC/GTS dinner will shift to the last Friday night of the month beginning in January; 1/29/2010 and 2/26/2010!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Already Decemeber!

GTS hopes to see everyone at the GTS/JCC dinner this Friday at Kyoto Sushi at 7pm! Year 2010 is just around the corner and I enjoyed 'ratemyprofesssors.com' as I did a while ago. According to the response, I am an awful teacher letting motivated students down! I am unclear (as I also admit this all the time!). I am just reading a textbook, hahaha. I am NOT teaching Kanji (well, what can I do? teach you how to write? well that is the computer's job in this era!) I am not clear on the grade... (might be right. But I can tell you exactly how many points you got out of how many possible points at any time. You can do the math and you can figure out your grade as 'D' or 'F' but often your grade report says 'C' or 'D.' Why? I don't have to tell you, do I? YOU know how many points you get! Miracle will never happen! Most of other comments might be true! Sorry for those who quit learning Japanese because of me but I know those who enjoy my class outnumbers! Agree? Hope you do!